Suffolk Moths Blog

A small flurry of migrants has been evident the past few days at Bawdsey Hall.

Two Gems were light-trapped on the night of Friday 18th October – one of each sex and both in the same trap!  The last time I took Gem here was on 4th October when two males appeared; also both in the same trap, but at the opposite end of the Bawdsey Hall grounds.  I find it absolutely amazing, that with a choice of lights, they decided to travel together to the same moth trap.

A single Delicate was caught last night (20th) along with a Convolvulus Hawk-moth – the first since 4th October - I thought I wasn’t going to see this moth again this season, so it was good to catch another nice fresh specimen.

Conditions still looking good the next few nights, albeit rather breezy and with some rain.  Traps in sheltered spots should pick up a few migrants.

Here in Bradwell in the North East of the County I trapped on the 17th and 18th. The first night was so bright and clear that although I’d positioned all my traps I left only one running beyond 10pm as there was virtually nothing coming to light. In the morning 12 species recorded, a big drop in species and numbers from just over a week ago. Last night all four traps running, no bright moon but pretty breezy which seemed to affect numbers, although the first November moths of the season were recorded among 20 species, along with the first Feathered Thorn of the season.

The weather looks quite interesting for MV trapping over the next few nights and well into next week; with southerlies emanating from a long way south.

I myself took yet another Palpita vitrealis last night at Bawdsey Hall – what a year it has been for this species.  I’ve lost count of how many I’ve had, but five or six I think – there must have been ten county-wide which would be a record year.   This is hopefully the forerunner of further decent migrants to come and I think there will be something really good trapped like a Death’s-head Hawk.

Resident species are much the same these past few nights with November Moth the only species to creep on to my year list.  Feathered Thorn has been steadily increasing in numbers in recent nights; as has Green-brindled Crescent and Satellite.

Lesser Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing and Square-spot Rustic are declining in numbers now.

Last night (14th) produced a fine red-striped male Vestal and five Scarce Bordered Straw amongst the more regular migrants Diamond-back Moth, Rush Veneer, Dark Sword-grass and Silver Y at Bawdsey Hall.  A single Delicate was trapped on Saturday night (12th).

Recent resident species of interest have included Streak, Mallow, Grey Pine Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Grey and Blair’s Shoulder-knot, Merveille du Jour, Barred and Pink-barred Sallows; Beaded Chestnut, Chestnut, Satellite, Brown-spot Pinion, Green-brindled Crescent and Feathered Ranunculus.  Large Wainscots and L-album Wainscots still about in good numbers.  Brick and both the Red-line and Yellow-line Quaker are regular and the odd Feathered Thorn.  Still not seen any November Moths yet.

A few micros still about with Caloptilia semifascia, Acleris sparsana and Epiphyas postvittana the most regular.  On the look out for further specimens of hemidactylella but not seen any.

The coming nights have potential for further immigration with winds emanating from the south.

For about an hour shortly after dusk last night it was surprisingly mild, so I thought it would be rude not to check the Ivy along Lower Street. I wasn’t expecting to see many migrants, so was extremely surprised that my first moth was a Vestal. It was in almost exactly the same spot as one I had on the 6th, which made me think it may have been the same individual. Too much of a coincidence surely? In all, in a little under an hour I had 36 moths of 10 species. 11 were Angle Shades and 9 were Chestnuts. Common Marbled Carpet took bronze with 4; there were only two Dark Sword-grass. Incredibly, as I returned to the start point I had another Vestal!

The point made about hibernating Chestnuts is interesting. We have only found two Dark Chestnuts (22 Sept and 4 Oct) whilst Chestnuts didn’t start until the 3 October. Behaviourally, we tend to find them on the back of ivy flowers which would suggest that they have crawled out from within. The same tends to apply with Setaceous Hebrew Characters.

Neil thinks his rather impressive gang of chestnut moths may hibernate in his ivy clumps and come out now and then to feed. This seems very likely – they never seem to be very active or adventurous moths. What has occurred to me over the past couple of years is that the chestnut and dark chestnut may have different hibernating strategies. I saw several dark chestnut earlier this autumn, long before I saw a chestnut, but then they disappeared and there is now only a regular trickle of chestnuts. I wonder if the dark chestnut hibernates early and doesn’t come out once it has found a good spot, whereas the chestnut, as Neil suggests, is not a deep sleeper and goes in search of snacks? This behaviour may already be widely known – I’m not an expert! And it may be that someone has done a PhD on this subject; it’d certainly make a more interesting monograph than some I’ve read.

I think the couple of wild nights we’ve just had have tipped us into autumn. I trapped in the garden last night; the comparison was interesting. Total catch on the 8th was 153 moths of 35 species. Last night was 86 moths of 16 species. Apart from the obvious halving of both total numbers and species diversity there were some clear trends – setaceous hebrew character down from 21 to 3, large yellow underwing down from 30 to 13. Lunar underwing gone completely. But some species (the more robust seasonal species like merveille du jour, yellow-line quaker, brindled green, green-brindled crescent) actually increased. Migrants seem to have been wiped out (only one silver y), as have ‘hangers on’ (snout etc). So we seem to be back to an average autumn, waiting for a warm southerly.

Bitter northerly winds and rain confronted me at the Hall this morning.  A big crash in moth numbers was evident with just 14 sp. noted (down from 53 the previous night)

Just three migrants battled the strong winds and made it into the traps – a single Rush Veneer and two Dark Sword-grass.  In fact it was a tricky operation to stop the egg trays blowing away in the gale!  I hate to think how many migrants drowned in the ferocious seas around our coastline last night.

I was surprised that Common Marbled Carpet and Mallow managed to enter the traps and just two micros – singles of Eudonia pallida and Epiphyas postvittana.

Let’s hope these cold northerlies move through and we can get back to some more settled conditions and more moths.  There is still lots to come – Bawdsey is very good right up to mid-November most years.